Slideshow of the Day: The end of reefing

For the past decade, the MTA has disposed of old subway cars through a reefing program. In fact, more than 2500 cars, stripped of their valuable and toxic parts, have been dropped to the ocean floor to create a home for ocean life and a destination for water tourists. (Check out a video on reefing here.) In a slideshow for The Times over the weekend, though, Michael Grynbaum reported on the end of the reefing program.

According to Grynbaum’s MTA sources, the newer cars aren’t fit for reefing. “After 10 years,” he writes, “the authority determined that its newer subway cars would not be suitable for this fate; those trains have more plastic parts than their predecessors, making them more expensive to prepare for reefing. The era of the underwater subway graveyard officially came to an end.” The authority will try to find a “more efficient manner of disposal.” The reefs then will stay as they are, and the photos of cars being sunk will remain as dramatic as they ever were.

Jeez, with commodity prices rising – especially stainless steel – I would expect that the scrap value of all-stainless cars would be high enough that NYCT could scrap them more profitably than stripping & decontaminating them. and THEN giving them to the fish…